Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Reframing Children's Judgments of Consensus Reliability as a Process of Information Aggregation(2023) Levush, Karen Carmel; Butler, Lucas P; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Consensus is a compelling cue to the truth value of a given claim, but certain consensus patterns provide stronger evidence than others. This dissertation examines the developmental trajectory of children’s reasoning about the epistemic value of diverse perspectives for consensus’ reliability. One-hundred forty-four children between the ages of 7 and 9, as well as 48 adults, were introduced to a novel planet and alien groups that live there. Tasked with learning the “right things” about why various natural phenomena occur on this planet, participants were asked which one of two consensus groups, each of whom collectively thought something different, was the “better” group to ask. Participants rated their relative preference for one consensus group over another using a 6-point scale and were asked to explain their reasoning. These findings provide initial evidence that qualitative changes in children’s ability to consider how dependencies can lead to redundant information parallel the developmental shift in children’s appreciation for interpretive diversity in middle childhood.Item The acquisition of adjunct control: grammar and processing(2016) Gerard, Juliana; Lidz, Jeffrey; Linguistics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation uses children’s acquisition of adjunct control as a case study to investigate grammatical and performance accounts of language acquisition. In previous research, children have consistently exhibited non-adultlike behavior for sentences with adjunct control. To explain children’s behavior, several different grammatical accounts have been proposed, but evidence for these accounts has been inconclusive. In this dissertation, I take two approaches to account for children’s errors. First, I spell out the predictions of previous grammatical accounts, and test these predictions after accounting for some methodological concerns that might have influenced children’s behavior in previous studies. While I reproduce the non-adultlike behavior observed in previous studies, the predictions of previous grammatical accounts are not borne out, suggesting that extragrammatical factors are needed to explain children’s behavior. Next, I consider the role of two different types of extragrammatical factors in predicting children’s non-adultlike behavior. With a new task designed to address the task demands in previous studies, children exhibit significantly higher accuracy than with previous tasks. This suggests that children’s behavior has been influenced by task- specific processing factors. In addition to the task, I also test the predictions of a similarity-based interference account, which links children’s errors to the same memory mechanisms involved in sentence processing difficulties observed in adults. These predictions are borne out, supporting a more continuous developmental trajectory as children’s processing mechanisms become more resistant to interference. Finally, I consider how children’s errors might influence their acquisition of adjunct control, given the distribution in the linguistic input. I discuss the results of a corpus analysis, including the possibility that adjunct control could be learned from the input. The kinds of information that could be useful to a learner become much more limited, however, after considering the processing limitations that would interfere with the representations available to the learner.Item Comparing Me to You: Comparison Between Novel and Familiar Goal-Directed Actions Facilitates Goal Extraction and Imitation(2011) Gerson, Sarah A.; Woodward, Amanda L; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Recognizing the goals of others' actions is critical for much of human development and social life. Origins of this knowledge exist in the first year and are a function of both acting as an intentional agent and observing movement cues in actions. In this dissertation, I explore a new mechanism I believe plays an important role in infants' understanding of novel actions---comparison. In four studies, I examine how the opportunity to compare a familiar action with a novel, tool use action (through physical alignment of the two actions) helps 7- and 10-month-old infants extract and imitate the goal of a tool use action. In Studies 1 and 2, 7-month-old infants given the chance to compare their own reach for a toy with an experimenter's reach using a claw later imitated the goals of an experimenter's tool use actions. In contrast, infants who engaged with the claw, were familiarized with the claw's causal properties, learned the associations between claw and toys, or interacted in a socially contingent manner with the experimenter using the claw did not later imitate the experimenter's goals. Study 3 replicated the finding that engagement in physical alignment facilitated goal extraction and imitation and indicated that this was true for older infants (10-month-olds). It also demonstrated that observation of the same physical alignment did not lead to goal imitation at this age. Finally, Study 4 revealed that 10-month-old infants could learn about the goals of novel actions through the observation of physical alignment when a cue to focus on the goal of the two actions was presented during the alignment process (i.e., a verbal label), indicating that infants gained a conceptual representation of the goal and used structure mapping to extract the common goal between actions. Infants who heard a non-label vocalization during the observation of physical alignment did not later imitate the experimenter's goals. The nature, breadth, and implications of these findings are discussed. Together, these findings indicate that infants can extract the goal-relation of a novel action through comparison processes; comparison could thus have a broad impact on the development of action knowledge.Item The Impact of a Peer Multicultural Dialogue Leader Training Program on Cognitive Development of College Students and Overall Learning: An Evaluative Case Study(2008-04-22) Voorhees, Rhondie L; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study was a formal case study evaluation of college students' learning associated with participation in the Peer Multicultural Dialogue Leader training program in the Common Ground Dialogue Program at the University of Maryland. Outcomes of interest were the impact of the training program on cognitive development as defined by Perry's (1968/1970) theory of intellectual development, understanding of multiple perspectives, the nature of experiential learning, and the dialogue leaders' characterizations of their overall learning. The research questions were studied through an evaluative case study. The primary unit of analysis was the Spring 2005 training program and the embedded units of analyses were eight sophomore students in the training program. Explanatory, descriptive, and exploratory case study methods were used (Merriam, 1998; Yin, 2003a) that incorporated both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Data were collected from five sources: the Measure of Intellectual Development (MID) (Knefelkamp, 1974; Widick, 1975), participant interviews, e-mail reflections, observations of training sessions, and a focus group with five program alumni. Techniques for data analysis included pattern matching (Yin, 2003b) and interpretive analysis (Merriam, 1998; Stake, 1995). The results and findings from this study revealed that the training program was a developmentally powerful learning environment for the dialogue leaders. Participation in the program was found to promote and enhance cognitive development, encourage understanding of multiple perspectives, provide opportunities for experiential learning, and promote additional learning in the categories of knowledge acquisition, skill development, self-awareness, and integrated transferability. MID results indicated that six of the eight participants showed positive change in cognitive development as defined by Perry's (1968/1970) theory during the training semester, with five of the six showing positive change of at least half a position. Three themes emerged as especially significant. The findings suggest that (a) intentionally teaching Perry's (1968/1970) theory to undergraduate students promotes cognitive development, (b) teaching concepts of "process" and "content" promotes cognitive development, and (c) requiring students to be "neutral facilitators" results in listening, self-reflection, and increased understanding of self and others. Several implications of the findings are discussed. These include implications for theory, the dialogue program, and undergraduate multicultural teaching and education.Item The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/Mormon Children's Music: Its History, Transmission, and Place in Children's Cognitive Development(2005-08-01) Karnas-Haines, Colleen J.; Provine, Robert C.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a children's auxiliary program for ages three to eleven that meets weekly before or after their Sunday worship service. This auxiliary, called Primary, devotes much of its time to singing. Music is not a childish diversion, but an essential activity in the children's religious education. This study examines the history of the songbooks published for Primary use, revealing the many religious and cultural factors that influence the compilations. The study then looks at the modern methods of transmission as the author observes the music education aspects of Primary. Lastly, the study investigates the children's use of and beliefs about Primary music through the lens of cognitive development. The study reveals that Primary music is an ever-evolving reflection of the theology, cultural trends, and practical needs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Unaware of such implications, the children use Primary music to express their religious musicality at cognitive developmentally appropriate levels.